From the Crutchfield Archives

In this video we listen to two different Kenwood bass systems. It's hard to hear the difference over the Internet, but it was easy to hear it in real life. The Kenwood trainer helps describe that difference and why it can be worth it to spend a little more sometimes.

Robert: Hi. I'm here with Kris from Kenwood and she stopped by today with her car to let us hear some Kenwood products and I'll just let her tell you what it's all about.

Kris: Really the fun part of our demo here today is the subwoofer demo. So what I have crammed in the trunk are what we call Party Packs. So Kenwood makes a basic Party Pack which is a basic amplifier and two subwoofers. And Crutchfield offers Sound Ordnance enclosures.

So this is a dual 10" box and when you package all this together it's about two hundred and eighty dollars. It gives us a nice basic system to add a sub to the car, but we also wanted to show the difference, for about sixty dollars more, you can get that same Sound Ordnance enclosure but you can add step-up subwoofers and a better amplifier.

And what you want to listen for as we do this demo is the snappiness in the bass. Generally when you step up to this package, you're going to get a little more precision in the bass and more output because you have a more powerful amplifier. So I'm gonna start with our track just with the basic system running and then I'll go ahead and switch it over to this and I'll let you know when I do that. So right now we're just hearing this. And now we're gonna hear this. Okay I'm going to switch that one more time  so again back to the basic set and then to this step up set.

Robert: I don't know how well that's coming through on our video, but when you switched I could hear a definite difference. The step up set had a little more power to it and a little more force, as it should because you said it's a more powerful amp, but I could also hear more definition and more control in the subwoofers themselves.

Kris: Right. And that's really the big difference between a basic sub and a step-up sub; there's a lot more control happening here so the notes are precise and clean. You don't hear that little bit of distortion as the note starts and finishes.

Robert: Alright. Thank you for putting it together for us and thanks for giving me the time to talk to you here.

Kris: Well we always appreciate the chance to train and to educate and thanks a lot.

Robert: Alright Kris. We'll see you later.

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Crutchfield Writer Biography

Robert Ferency-Viars

Robert Ferency-Viars is the managing editor for the Crutchfield car A/V learning content, and has been with the company since 1999. A Virginia native from the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, he loves spending time with his wonderful wife and sons, listening to music, writing, and playing games with friends. Robert's love for car audio began at 16 when he installed his first car stereo.

Video Team

Most of the people appearing in our videos are employees at Crutchfield. We pull in folks from around the company to share their expertise. A lot of our on-camera stars come from our Advisor Group — they help people choose the right gear via phone, email and chat every day, so they're good at explaining the products and technologies.